Articles – Page 36

Blinded by the Light

August 24, 2023

Do you remember the song Blinded by the Light? This composition, which was originally written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen, first appeared on his 1973 debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Bruce is, of course, a legend. As awesome as his rendition is, however, I will always associate Blinded by the Light with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, who released their version three years later as a track on their 1976 album, The Roaring Silence.

I was just perusing and Read More → "Blinded by the Light"

Blumind Bodes AI For Everyone, Everywhere

by Max Maxfield

August 22, 2023

As I’ve mentioned several times on previous occasions, when I commenced my degree course in Control Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University in England circa the mid-1970s, the only computer available to the students that physically resided in the engineering department building was a room-sized analog beast. In this case, we implemented our algorithms using plug-in cables to connect the various analog functions. … Read More →

Farewell my beloved x1 x10 Scope Probe

by Steven Leibson

August 21, 2023

In its infinite wisdom, the Test and Measurement Alliance (TMA) has announced that there’s been an “industry-wide decision to retire x1/x10 switchable oscilloscope probes.” What, you’ve never heard of the TMA? Me neither. However, according to the TMA’s Web site, it’s been around since 2016.

The press release that announced this discontinuation said:

“The TMA, an international alliance of Test and Measurement companies, today announces a significant industry-wide decision to retire x1/x10 switchable oscilloscope probes in all new Alliance Member oscilloscope products, effective from … Read More → "Farewell my beloved x1 x10 Scope Probe"

The Future Sounds Incredible (When Employing Ultrasonic Speaker Technology)

by Max Maxfield

August 17, 2023

I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll doubtless say it many times again—I’m a simple man who likes a simple story—something I can wrap my poor old noggin around without tears of confusion rolling down my cheeks and sans my brains leaking out of my ears.

Happily, the tale I’m poised to impart is simple in concept, which is not to minimize the awesomeness of the underlying technology.

Growing up as a young man in the 1970s, it was generally understood that … Read More → "The Future Sounds Incredible (When Employing Ultrasonic Speaker Technology)"

In Memoriam: Chuck Near, An Extraordinary Engineer and Engineering Manager

by Steven Leibson

August 14, 2023

The man sitting across the desk from me had come to Case Western Reserve University in the winter of early 1975 to recruit new engineering graduates for Hewlett-Packard. The university had recently acquired an HP 9830A desktop computer and 9866A thermal page printer. These two products transformed my computer experience. Instead of feeding punched cards into a card reader/line printer and waiting for the printer to spit out several greenbar pages telling you that the Univac 1108 across the street from the computer department building had detected a syntax error in your second card and aborted your run, … Read More → "In Memoriam: Chuck Near, An Extraordinary Engineer and Engineering Manager"

Want to Reduce Your Data Center AI Inferencing Infrastructure Costs by 10X?

by Max Maxfield

August 10, 2023

I just had something of an epiphany.* What pops into your mind when you are exposed to the term “extreme edge”? Assuming you are of a technical nature, I’d wager the first thing you consider is the “things” portion of the internet of things (IoT). That is, the smart connected sensors and actuators that sit at the interface between the network and the real world. My epiphany, such as it was, is that another way of looking at the extreme edge is from the perspective of those entities in the real world that interface with the … Read More → "Want to Reduce Your Data Center AI Inferencing Infrastructure Costs by 10X?"

What Is Time, What Time Is It, and Why Do We Care?

by Max Maxfield

August 8, 2023

I’ve made mention of this before, but it bears repeating; when I was a little lad growing up in England, it seemed to me that, as soon as two or more adults huddled together, they had only three main topics of conversation. They started with the weather—how it was today, how this compared to the past 50 years, and what we might expect in the coming decades. Then they moved on to health—discussing their various ailments, trying to outdo each other, and—if we were unlucky—comparing scars from previous operations. Finally, they came … Read More → "What Is Time, What Time Is It, and Why Do We Care?"

The Microcontroller that Just Won’t Die

by Steven Leibson

August 7, 2023

Movie history is replete with heroes and villains that refuse to die, despite grievous bodily harm. Here are a few quotes from various movies to help you remember these characters:

“How many times do I have to kill you, boy?” – Jafar to Aladdin, Aladdin, 1992

“Why can’t you just die?” – Two-Face to Batman, Batman Forever, 1995

“Why can’t you be a good boy and just die?” – Janus to James Bond, Goldeneye, 1995

Embedded Security for MCUs at the Edge

by Max Maxfield

August 3, 2023

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s getting to be a scary world out there, cybersecurity speaking. I’m not an angry man, but this makes me want to gnash my teeth and rend my garb. When I was in my early-20s (sometime in the previous century), a small group of us visited a friend who lived in a village near the south coast of England.

One day, we went for a walk, during which a member of our party needed to use the restroom. … Read More → "Embedded Security for MCUs at the Edge"

Do You Long Nostalgically for Retro Tech? Part 2: Film and Nixie Tubes

by Steven Leibson

August 2, 2023

Of course, retro-tech nostalgia is not limited to sound reproduction, which I discussed earlier in Part 1 of this article series, so let’s now talk about retro photography nostalgia. For 30 years, I shot photos with an SLR (single-lens reflex) camera using film, starting in 1972. I’ve shot Kodak Kodachrome and Ektachrome slide film, Kodacolor and Kodacolor II print film, Fujicolor print film, Ilford black-and-white film, and assorted film stock from Agfa. So, I’ve taken a lot of photographs using film. … Read More →